September, globally, is designated as National Sickle Cell Awareness Month. This annual and month-long campaign was kickstarted to encourage research, increase awareness and distribute information that contend with myths and uniformed opinions about sickle cell and sickle cell warriors. Globally, a flurry of educational, entertaining and empowering virtual and physical events are held around these periods. This same momentum is resident in Nigeria with government and non-profit organizations organizing activities tied around awareness and advocacy. But, as the month trudges on with sickle cell-centered activities happening in succession, a question any cinema-loving and Nollywood enthusiast will ask is: how has Nollywood portrayed sickle cell disease and sickle cell warriors over the years? What type of representation, positive or negative, has Nigerian filmmakers given to SCD and SCD warriors? What films, if they exist, are centered around Nigerian SCD warriors’ realities? How important is Nollywood’s representations of SCD to warriors and everyday Nigerians?
These questions motivated a sleuthing through Nollywood film history. In this Sherlock-Homes-esque search, films like Andy Amenechi’s Mortal Inheritance, Tunde Kelani’s Dazzling Mirage, Uduak-Obong Patrick’s Strain, Orimz’s The Stone Drew Ripples and more recently Iyabo Ojo’s Not Again and Great-Valentine Edochie’s The Beauty of Broken Things. There is also Emmanuel Ikubese’s Mzigo, a Pan-African film project aimed at raising awareness and combatting the stigma surrounding sickle cell disease. The film premiered at the 2025 Zanzibar International Film Festival. Although it’s not publicly available, it’s an addition to Nollywood’s SCD-focused library. These aforementioned films represent Nollywood’s knowledge, meditation and engagement with SCD from an artistic and social commentary perspective. And while these scanty films might be a limiting sample size in accessing and critiquing Nigerian filmmakers portrayal of SCD, it offers an insight into the thought process of these identified filmmakers. Additionally, it provides an illuminating and sometimes triggering watch, especially for SCD warriors, about the thoughts of the everyday Nigerians represented in these films as parents, friends, parents, siblings, pastors, neighbors, doctors and potential father and mother in laws.
Amenechi’s Mortal Inheritance was produced at a period in Nigerian history where there was a mass lack of knowledge and information about SCD. Misconceptions, cultural stigma and social ostracism were realities of SCD warriors. Nigerian haematologist, Prof Olufemi Akinyanju, had started identifying sickle cell patients as a young doctor in Lagos in the 1960s. But, it was in 1994 that he founded Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria in Lagos. Esther Nwazi’s paper, Malevolent Ogbanje: Recurrent Reincarnation or Sickle Cell Disease?, published in 2001, looked at how Nigerian cultural knowledge and understanding was used to explain SCD to Nigerian families. In Nwazi’s paper, SCD warriors are seen as malevolent ogbanje(reincarnate) who are different “from others in being revenge-driven, chronically ill and engaging in repeated cycles of birth, death and reincarnation.” The absence of scientific understanding and knowledge made it possible for the cultural explanation – that SCD warriors are malevolent ogbanje, to stick. It was in this context that Amenechi’s Mortal Inheritance was made.
The film featuring Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde and Fred Amata, which is possibly the first indigenous film centered around SCD, was a positive portrayal of SCD and Nigeria SCD warriors. From the first scene, the writer of the film Amenechi and Bond Emeruwa, there’s a noticeable care and subtleness in discussing the subject. The filmmakers and actors bring a level of respect and understanding to the film that doesn’t reinforce social stigma or push stereotypes. Kemi’s parents “protection” isn’t framed as an overzealous act of protection. The writer deliberately frames it as an act of love that doesn’t deny Kemi, despite her SCD status, of her agency for movement and decisions. Mortal Inheritance reinforces the need to have important conversations about genetic compatibility and bluntly critique how education and wealth doesn’t cart off tribalistic and unflattering ideas. Although it’s impossible to gauge the level of response the film received when it was produced due to the absence of data and documentation, one can presume a positive and welcoming acceptance of the film within the Nigerian SCD warrior community.
In 2014, Tunde Kelani’s Dazzling Mirage hit the Nigerian market with its nuanced and empowering portrayal of SCD and SCD warriors with a focus on the educated and upwardly mobile Funmiwo. Written by Olayinka Abimbola Egbokhare and Ade Solanke, the film isn’t an exhibitionist narrative of SCD. The burden carried by warriors, the overcompensation motivated by fear of unemployment and the unspoken and unarticulated resentment SCD warriors might carry for their parents are embedded. 7 years later, Patrick’s Strain was made and available to watch on Netflix until recently. Although I haven’t seen the film, there are reviews pointing at how the film presents SCD in an unflattering lens. In 2024, Iyabo Ojo’s Not Again was released on YouTube and if anything, there’s no justification for the existence of this troubling and harmful film.
The film is filled with such bitterness and hatred for SCD warriors that watching becomes unbearable at different points. In a scene, one of the actors, after discovering her husband’s truegenotype– he lied out of fright about his AS genotype–called her foetus a “virus” and “a thing that will ruin all the beautiful colour in their life.” In another scene, the sole SCD warrior in the film is constantly framed as a pendulum dragging her parents’ career and wealth to oblivion. This is starkly different from Amenechi’s Mortal Inheritance which was made in the early 90s when knowledge around SCD was sparse. That a 1996 film is more educative, nuanced, careful and respectful in its treatment than a 2024 film is infuriating. But, when observing how prone Nigerian filmmakers are to stereotypes and perpetuating harmful portrayals, the anger takes a different form. Ideally, The Beauty of Broken Things, made in 2024, is an empty but feel good film. Unlike Iyabo Ojo’s Not Again is doesn’t soil itself with uneducated dialogues and actions. The script written by Ufoma Bakphore doesn’t burden itself with hefty conflicts but teaching and advocacy moments. The film could have passed for an awareness campaign and advocacy for SCD warriors in Nigeria. It preaches the need to question the stigma associated with SCD and champion education around checking one’s genotype.
According to Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria, Nigeria’s with its over 237 million population and over 50 million healthy carriers of sickle cell makes it the epicenter of sickle cell disorders. Tragically, over 150,000 babies are born annually with sickle cell anaemia, and most of them die young due to lack of awareness, diagnosis, and treatment. With how widespread SCD is, why do we have just a meagre seven sickle-cell-centred films? If Nigerian filmmakers are making films about other social, cultural and political issues, is it out of place to ask and demand that films about sickle cell warriors and their daily realities within the context of a Nigerian society be made? What does that absence tell us about the Nigerian film industry? Beyond making these films, what does true and empathetic representation look like? What is the importance of media engagement? These are the questions that a film culture and society conscious about SCD will pose. But at the same time, do we run the risk of reducing Nigerians with SCD to just the disease if we’re demanding for more SCD representation in Nigerian cinema? In a film industry with limited strong storytellers, don’t we run the risk of rehashing stereotypes?
Anjola Oladimeji, Lawyer and founder of Ntetee Foundation, a NGO primarily dedicated to sickle cell warriors and disadvantaged women, said this small number reflects how overlooked sickle cell still is, especially in societal and cultural conversations. She believes that for a condition that affects millions of Nigerians, there should be a lot more nuanced stories on screen. “Film is one of the most powerful ways to make people feel, to take something that would most likely feel very abstract to people who are detached from it into human, relatable terms. But with few portrayals, the narrative remains narrow and sometimes even inaccurate.” Storytelling shapes perceptions especially in a Nigerian context and if we aren’t telling enough stories, silence, which in turn breeds stigma, around the disease is being enabled. Cinematic representations are lacking but as awareness about sickle cell at any level, however minuscule, is a welcome development. “I look forward to the days we begin to tell more layered, compelling, and impactful stories about the disease,” she concluded.
Speaking about Mortal Inheritance and Dazzling Mirage, Oladimeji affirmed that these films approached the subject with dignity, respect, and empathy. Mortal Inheritance humanized sickle cell disease, showing not just the struggle, but the complexity of love, life, and choice for warriors. Dazzling Mirage captures the everyday lived experience of warriors with a rare honesty. The film touches on subjects including, general beliefs and perceptions about the disease, opioid dependence, the struggle to keep a job, the quiet resilience of warriors, the unspoken resentment some SCD warriors may feel toward their parents, and the never-ending crisis episodes that interrupt but don’t completely define life. “What all these films got right is that they did not reduce warriors to just their pain, they allowed them to be fully human: with joy, ambition, heartbreak, love and agency. That balance is what makes their portrayals so important.”
For a society with a severely undereducated populace and a crumbling educational system, Nollywood is one of Nigeria’s biggest teachers. When films like Not Again recycle stereotypes and The Stone Drew Ripples portray warriors as frail objects of pity, they reinforce damaging myths. Harmful narratives deepen stigma, and stigma isolates, this is why responsible storytelling is not optional, it’s a necessity. “For a society where formal education about sickle cell is very limited, this kind of misrepresentation can have very real consequences. It can influence how classmates treat a child in school, how employers make hiring decisions, or even how families regard their own loved ones.”
These Nollywood portrayals, negative and positive, leave an imprint. While the positive ones leave empathy, humanize warriors, and give the public a deeper understanding, the negative ones reinforce stigma, keep people silent, and make an already heavy burden heavier. In Oladimeji’s opinion, Nollywood has the reach and influence to shift culture if filmmakers commit to deeper research, collaborate with medical experts, and even warriors themselves by centering warrior voices in their storytelling. She believes that film can move beyond entertainment to become education and advocacy. “We can normalize conversations around sickle cell, break myths, and show the resilience of warriors instead of constantly reinforcing their fragility. If it’s done right, Nollywood can be one of our greatest tools for raising awareness and reducing stigma.”
As the world creates awareness around sickle cell disease this month, it’s only right to demand that Nigerian filmmakers pay attention to not just telling sickle-cell-centric stories but dignifying and empowering ones. Representation matters because dignifying portrayal restores pride, builds community and reminds warriors that they aren’t invisible. This thinking sits at the core of what Ntetee Foundation stands for. Its art-driven health advocacy uses all forms of art and media as tools for advocacy — from social media campaigns that reframe the warrior’s identity, to their forthcoming archival documentary Before We Had a Name, which traces the cultural and medical evolution of sickle cell anemia in Nigeria. “Through art, we can give sickle cell a voice, lifting it out of the shadows into the light, and placing it firmly at the heart of our national conversation, as a shared collective struggle.”
0 Comments
Add your own hot takes